Freedom House — Freedom of the Press 2016: Kuwait (Partly Free, 59/100)

Scores: Partly Free; 59/100; legal environment 20/30, political environment 23/40, economic environment 16/30 (0 = best, 100 = worst).

Legal framework: speech and press are protected by articles 36 and 37 of the constitution only 'in accordance with the conditions and in the circumstances defined by law'. The 2006 Press and Publications Law forbids criticism of the emir, disclosure of secret or private information and calls for the overthrow of the regime; criticism of Islam carries up to one year and fines of up to 20,000 dinars, and both author and editor may be criminally liable. Article 25 of the penal code penalises public criticism of the emir with up to five years. 'Violations are reported frequently, as any citizen may initiate charges against an individual who they believe has committed an offense under these laws.' The June 2015 cybercrime law extended these offences expressly to online media: article 6 covers insults to religious figures, criticism of the emir and of the judiciary, statements that could damage Kuwait's foreign relations, and classified information; article 7 criminalises urging, through information technology, 'to adopt creeds that aim at destroying the basic statutes of Kuwait through illegal means'. A 2014 law created the Commission for Mass Communications and Information Technology with broad powers to license and to direct censorship of content that 'harms public order', without provision for judicial review. There is no access-to-information law.

Cases in 2015: bloggers arrested in January for allegedly insulting Saudi Arabia or its king, including Mohammed al-Ajmi; blogger Saleh al-Saeed's four-year sentence increased to six years on appeal, upheld by the Court of Cassation in June; the publishing licence of Al-Watan, often critical of the government, revoked in January and the revocation upheld in court.

Media market: six Arabic- and two English-language dailies, all privately owned; licensing by the Ministry of Information with a minimum capital of 250,000 dinars; ISPs required to block political, 'anti-Islamic', extremist and pornographic sites; internet café owners required to record customers' identities.

USE IN A REPORT: a concise, sourced map of the provisions under which speech is prosecuted — useful to explain to a decision-maker which law a given charge or complaint is likely to fall under, and that prosecution can be triggered by a private complaint.

For lawyers and media-freedom specialists: the value of this edition lies in its statutory map rather than its score — constitution articles 36–37, the 2006 Press and Publications Law, penal code article 25, cybercrime law articles 6–7 and the 2014 communications regulator — together with the point that any citizen may initiate a complaint, which matters when assessing whether an individual's online activity could realistically lead to prosecution. Freedom House discontinued its Freedom of the Press index after the 2017 edition and has removed these reports from its current website; the archived copy cited here is the original page as published.